


christmas (baby, please come home).

by porcelainsimplicity



Series: christmas stories [9]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Advent Challenge, Christmas Eve, Christmas Party, M/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 21:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16879842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelainsimplicity/pseuds/porcelainsimplicity
Summary: They're singing deck the hallsBut it's not like Christmas at allI remember when you were hereAnd all the fun we had last yearIf there was a wayI'd hold back these tearsBut it's Christmas dayBaby, please come homeor:  Charles makes a wish.  All he wants is for Erik to come home.





	christmas (baby, please come home).

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Scarlett_Phoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlett_Phoenix/gifts).



> Yeah, so this year I decided to do an advent challenge. It's not part of anything official going on here at AO3. This is a list of prompts that I got elsewhere. I am going to thoroughly enjoy the hell out of this, however, because these prompts are awesome. All of the twenty-five fics that will be forthcoming will be in the X-Men movieverse fandom, though not all will be the same pairing. There is a ton of John/Bobby fics coming though. A TON.
> 
> The prompt for day six: Write three Christmas wishes. One from the past, one from the present, and one from the future.
> 
> Day six title song: Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) by U2 (and many others)

**24 December 1962**

It had been a little over two months since Cuba, but for Charles the memories were so fresh he could swear they'd happened two minutes ago. He was still trying to deal with the loss of the usage of his legs, he was still trying to deal with the fact that Raven had abandoned him on a beach when he was clearly injured, and he was still trying to deal with the fact that he had felt everything Sebastian Shaw had felt when he died.

But the thing he was trying to deal with most of all was that Erik was gone.

Charles had no idea how he'd ended up so attached to Erik, except for the fact that he actually did. It wasn't that Erik was a good looking man who had made Charles feel things that he'd never felt before. It wasn't that Erik made Charles rethink his entire sexual orientation in a matter of ten minutes after they'd first met. It wasn't that Erik, for some reason, liked to touch Charles just as much as Charles liked to touch him.

No, the fact of the matter was that Charles became so attached to Erik because he was an equal. He'd never had an equal before. He'd always been one step ahead, catching onto a line of thought before it had even finished and anticipating what would be said next, out-thinking those who thought they were the smartest in the room. But with Erik, there was none of that. Erik's mind was closed off to him because he'd promised he'd stay out of his head and he wanted nothing more than to keep that promise. He'd always tried to keep to those promises when he made them, but sometimes he couldn't help himself from peeking inside. He'd never done that with Erik, however. He'd kept to his promise right up until the moment he left. 

Erik had challenged him in ways that no one ever had before, from a mental, emotional, and physical perspective. He'd made him think about different sides, consider other options. He'd made him experience emotions that Charles hadn't known he could ever experience. And he'd presented him with the physical difficulties he was going to have for the rest of his life when he took away his legs.

But yet as he sat in his wheelchair in front of the tree on Christmas Eve, he was thinking about how much he wished Erik was there. Hank was in the kitchen getting them all a drink, Sean and Alex were putting the finishing touches on the Christmas tree, but all Charles wanted was Erik. He didn't even wish Raven was there as much as he wanted Erik to be and that didn't upset him as much as he thought it should. He watched as Alex plugged in the lights and the Christmas tree was lit, but he would have given it all up just to see Erik again. 

Hank came into the room a few moments later with a bottle of scotch and four glasses, and he poured them all a drink before anyone could say anything about it. He handed one to Charles and Charles just nodded, completely unsure of his current ability to speak. 

It had been at least a week since he'd thought about Erik Lehnsherr this much.

Hank gave a short speech about how his family always drank to a Christmas wish and then Hank, Sean, and Alex were sipping at their glasses. But Charles sat there, twisting his glass around in his hand, until he decided his Christmas wish would be the one thing he wanted above anything else.

He raised his glass to the other three, wished for Erik to come home, and then downed his glass in one sip.

**24 December 2018**

It may have been forty-five years since they'd gotten the Sentinel program canceled, but Charles's mind was still stuck on those days in 1973. More specifically, it was stuck on the memories he'd gotten out of Logan's head on one of those days, the day when he had somehow talked to himself in the future. 

He'd done everything that he had promised Logan he would do. He'd reopened the school. He'd found Scott, Jean, and Storm through various different means, and he was pretty sure that they were probably completely different to the way that he'd found them before. He'd met so many amazing mutants as well, students of his that had brightened his heart on the darkest of days for many decades now. There were some that were more special than others, some that he cared less about than the rest, but a core group had formed and become the next generation of X-Men, the generation he relied upon most now. Bobby, John, Piotr, Rogue. He cherished them all. But the one who he kept the closest eye on was Kitty, because he knew that she was the reason that all of them were living the lives they lived in the first place.

Hell, he'd even found Logan again, though it was very clear that the Logan he'd met in 1973 was not the Logan who resided inside the mansion now.

Yet it wasn't any of that which still had him thinking about Logan's memories. It wasn't the horrors of Logan's past that he'd been able to save certain people from. It wasn't the fact that he'd talked to himself either. It was something else entirely.

As per usual, it was Erik Lehnsherr.

His thoughts had been stuck on Erik since the day they'd met in 1962 and they would probably be stuck on Erik until the day he died. That was Charles's curse in life.

But in Logan's memories, in the future he'd seen when he'd talked to himself, Erik was there. He was right by Charles's side, right where Charles always wanted him to be. And while there had been moments over the years in which Erik had done the right thing, moments in which he proved to Charles that the Erik he'd always loved was still in there somewhere, there was one thing that Erik had never done.

Erik had never come home.

Charles wanted Erik to come home more than anything. He always had and he probably always would. He had made the invitation, made sure Erik was completely aware that he would be welcomed back at any moment, but Erik had never come home. 

He shook himself of his thoughts and wheeled himself down the hallway into the room where the Christmas tree had been set up. Bobby and Rogue were putting the finishing touches on the tree, John calling out very unhelpful pointers from the sofa. Kitty and Piotr were messing around with the radio, trying to find that one station that always played nothing but Christmas music. Scott, Jean, and Storm were trying to convince Logan to get into the spirit and put a Santa hat on like the rest of them were wearing. Kurt, Jubilee, and Peter were singing _Jingle Bells_ completely out of tune. It was the kind of Christmas he'd been experiencing for many years now, Christmas filled with the people he cared about most in the world, Christmas that would be joyful and happy.

Hank walked into the room a moment later, setting a tray of glasses down. A glass of scotch for each of them, just like how it had been with Hank every Christmas since 1962. Everyone accepted their glass with a thank you, Hank gave his customary short speech about how everyone needed to make a Christmas wish, and then everyone was sipping at their drinks. 

But Charles was sitting there twirling his glass around in his hands, thinking back on all the Christmas wishes he'd made in the past and all the things he could wish for this year. After a moment, he closed his eyes and made the same wish he'd wished for since 1962. When he opened his eyes, he drank the whole glass in one sip.

It was always going to be the same. Because all Charles Xavier wished for in the entire world was for Erik Lehnsherr to come home. 

**24 December 2023**

Charles was sitting in his wheelchair in front of the Christmas tree, watching the impromptu dance party to the Christmas music that was playing that had broken out in front of him. He could feel Logan standing somewhere behind him, knew that he was viewing the situation with amusement but also more happiness than Charles could ever imagine. He couldn't even begin to imagine the last Christmas Logan had spent, or how dreadfully long ago it had been for him to witness a Christmas like this. All Charles knew was that it was official now – they had succeeded in changing the future in more ways than one, and Logan had never been happier than when he'd woken up here. 

But Christmas also meant that it was that time of year when the thoughts that had plagued his mind off and on for sixty-one years cropped up again. He missed Raven's childlike delight more than words could say. He could still hear Sean's screams from outside when he thought he saw Santa's sleigh fly past the moon. He could remember the giddiness on Alex's face when he'd opened up his presents. Countless more thoughts crossed his mind as he watched the people he loved more than anything in the world dance in front of him to a song that he used to love but didn't anymore.

In fact, Charles was pretty sure that he didn't love Christmas at all anymore. Christmas was too many wishes, too many disappointments. He didn't even know why he bothered to get his hopes up every year when he knew that what he wished for was never going to happen. If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now. Still, he put on a smile for everyone, sang along to _White Christmas_ when it came on the radio, and gratefully accepted presents from whomever thought he deserved one. But there was always one moment in the evening that would depress him like no other, and he knew that moment was about to occur. 

Hank had slipped off to get the glasses of scotch and he would be back any minute now to announce it was time for the annual Christmas wish. Charles wanted to wish for something different, told himself every year that he would, but when the glass of scotch was in his hand, he could think of nothing he wanted more than for a man he used to drink scotch with to come home. He thought about sneaking out while everyone was distracted, thought about making his way to bed early, but he knew he never would. It would raise too many questions and they were questions that Charles never wanted to answer.

Hank came back into the room a moment later and passed out the glasses to everyone. He quickly explained what they were doing just as he did every year, and then everyone was sipping at their glass and back into the swing of conversation. Charles sat there with his glass twirling around in his hands, trying to convince his heart to wish for something else, but in the end he wished for the same thing as always and drained his glass in one sip.

He just wanted Erik to come home.

It was about twenty minutes after the wishes that Charles noticed it. A presence approaching the mansion, someone on foot. He couldn't get a read on the person's mind but it was definitely a person. They'd had a lot of mutants just show up recently looking for a home, and if someone was approaching the mansion on Christmas Eve night, then it must be something that was attended to immediately. He waved Hank over and explained the situation before exiting the room quietly and making his way to the entry way. The door was still unlocked from the day's events because Bobby never locked the front door until everyone in the mansion had gone to bed, so he was prepared to call out for whoever it was to come in once they knocked.

But a knock never came, despite the fact that he could tell the person was on the other side of the door. He wasn't sure what was going on because he still couldn't get a read on them, so he just waited, certain that whoever it was would become brave enough to knock at some point. Then he saw the doorknob slowly turn and he took a breath, ready to greet whoever it was that came through the door.

And in walked Erik Lehnsherr, that damned helmet on his head.

Charles's breath caught in his throat as Erik closed the door behind him, and he barely registered that Erik set a suitcase down before pulling the helmet off. Despite his overwhelming desire to dive into his mind and find out the reason he was there, he waited for Erik to speak. But Erik didn't speak, just stared at Charles. The look on his face was one that Charles had almost convinced himself that he'd completely made up because it had been so long since he'd seen it, and Charles didn't know what to make of the fact that it actually existed.

“Charles,” Erik finally said, smiling at him. 

“Erik,” Charles responded, making it clear to him that he wasn't going to say anything until Erik said more.

Erik just shook his head. “Pardon me. I wasn't expecting you to be in the entry.”

“And I wasn't expecting you to come walk up my driveway.”

Erik nodded, a small smile on his face. “I was just coming to see if an offer was still available.”

“And what offer is that?” Charles didn't dare get his hopes up.

“It's been many years of being Magneto,” Erik said after a moment. “And there have been many battles for many things. But there is one thing that I have wanted to return to for a very long time now, and that was just being Erik. And the only person I have ever been able to just be Erik with was you. So I was wondering if the offer to come home still stood.”

Charles stared at him for a moment, trying to gauge Erik's sincerity, before letting a smile cross his face. “Welcome home, old friend.”

Maybe there was something to these Christmas wishes of Hank's after all.


End file.
